1929--The Great Depression begins with the collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange

1932--By this year, U.S. stock market prices are 20 percent of their 1929 value, manufacturing output is 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment is between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force

1932--The total value of world trade had fallen by more than half

1932--Economic distress leads to the election of the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency

1933--Economic distress in Germany contributes to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler

1933--11,000 of America's 25,000 banks had failed

1936--Rapid expansion of munitions production ends the Depression in Germany

1939--The world's longest and most severe economic slump ends in the same year that World War II breaks out